Seven Eye-Witness Answers to After-Life Questions

When a single sting of the second deadliest poison in the world can kill a diver in fifteen minutes, how could Ian live through five separate attacks of the box jellyfish during that late-night dive? Simple answer: impossible. The twenty-five-year-old Kiwi lay on the camp stretcher in the improvised ambulance, watching brief video clips of his life pass before his eyes. By the end of that night, Ian would provide seven eye-witness answers to after-life questions.

The old, black Renault-4 chugged along as quickly as the Frenchman could force the speedometer. Over those eighteen miles of rugged roads on the island of Mauritius, the injured young man faced critical questions regarding life-after-death. You can read the dramatic details of the first phase of this saga in last week’s post, One Amazing Story for Praying Mothers Everywhere.

Though the strong, athletic man had committed his life to the Lord moments before arriving at the hospital, he knew his now-paralyzed body had little chance of surviving. Would his heart cease beating before enough anti-toxin had reversed the poison?

Finally, the nurse stopped changing cuffs and accepted Ian’s extremely low blood pressure as an accurate reading. She wheeled him over to the wooden benches where the two Indian doctors sat dozing. The younger man asked the routine registration form questions, never looking at Ian.

Anxiety turning to rage, Ian decided his only hope lay with the nearly bald older physician. Zeroing in, he stared hard at him, willing the doctor to glance up. The nurse handed the elder man Ian’s vital signs. He looked at Ian, back at the paper, and jumped up, barking orders over his shoulder as he ran with Ian to the critical care room.

The paralyzed patient breathed a sigh of relief. At last, he’d get some help.

The dying diver felt not one stick of the many needles puncturing his skin as the team worked to save him. The doctor constantly warned Ian not to shut his eyes. After the rest of the medical and nursing staff left, the older man remained.  He stood, wiping the sweat from Ian’s forehead.

When the older doctor left, the frightened patient experienced another severe surge of anxiety. Desperately blinking to keep the concentrated beads of sweat from his eyes, Ian begged the doctor to return. Of course, with only his eyelids functioning, no one heard Ian’s pleading.

I’ll just squeeze one eye shut and blink the other until someone comes, the exhausted but still fighting to live man reckoned.

Question One: What happens when a person dies?

Ian sensed his body floating. He saw it still on the hospital bed so knew he hadn’t died. He tried harder to keep his eye open. I’m not going to float off anywhere. No way.

The doctor failed to return. Surviving took more strength than Ian had. He closed his other eye and with a deep sigh, let go.

The floating sensation stopped. Ian knew something big had happened but didn’t realize he’d died. He knew he was gone, but where?

The Bible records the event as follows: “then the dust [out of which God made man’s body] will return to the earth as it was, and the spirit will return to God who gave it.” (Eccl 12:7 Amp)

Question Two: Is Hell a real place?

Yes. The one-chapter Book of Jude described the place those separated from God will spend eternity: “…for whom blackest darkness has been reserved forever.” (Jude 13c NIV)

Question Three: What’s Hell like?

Immediately after closing his other eye, Ian found himself standing in a vast void of pitch darkness. He couldn’t see the hospital bed. In fact, he couldn’t see anything at all.

The young man felt like he’d just awakened from a bad dream while sleeping at someone else’s house. He had no idea where everyone had gone or where to find the light switch. Ian stood all alone in the darkness.

Disoriented, Ian began searching. He walked around, trying to find the light switch. Ian discovered that wherever he stretched his hand, he didn’t actually touch anything at all. Why didn’t he, at least, bump into something in this deep darkness?

Wanting to know how much he could see, Ian brought his hand up to his face. He continued moving it closer, expecting to see it at some point. The young man reached right through his face. Freaked out, he tried to thump his chest. His invisible hand went through what Ian thought was his body.

“I have no body! How can that be? I’m myself. I’m Ian.”

Ian remembered being taught that he’d been created in God’s image, and God said He is a Spirit. So, now he was only a spirit and had no body?

“My visible body died, but I am very much alive.”

Where on earth am I? What is this place? A deep cold and intense fear suddenly engulfed Ian. Someone was watching his every move. But, who? Ian couldn’t see anything in this deep blackness.

Ian remembered that sometimes the same terrifying impression gripped him when he had to walk alone at night on an isolated street. He couldn’t see anyone, but fear seized him as he sensed the dark presence. Reaching his destination resolved that fear, but how could he escape it now?

Ian sensed others around him. Though he neither touched nor saw anyone, he received impressions of their angry, taunting barbs: “Shut up!”, “Don’t move!”, “Don’t disturb us.”, And “You deserve to be here!”

Enveloped by indescribable fear and bitter cold, Ian struggled to sort things out. Where on earth am I? This feels like Hell.

Isn’t hell supposed to be a place where bad guys go to party and do bad stuff without God bothering them? Humph! There’s no party.

The profound darkness contains nothing visible, nor of solid matter, so there’s nothing to see or touch. Forget about sitting around a table, drinking and shooting the breeze with friends. Absolutely, not happening in Hell.

Hell’s a lonely place of endless, chilling fear. No one would ever choose to go there if they knew how terrifying a place it is.

Finally, Ian realized he’d gone to Hell but couldn’t understand why.  He’d prayed just before he died. The Bible says that God rescues us from the darkness and brings us into His light. Why didn’t Ian get rescued?

“and giving joyful thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of his holy people in the kingdom of light.  For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.” (Col. 1:12-14 NIV)

In desperation, Ian cried out, “God, why am I here? I asked for your forgiveness. I’ve turned my heart to You. Why am I here?”

At that very moment, a brilliant light shone right on Ian, drawing him out of the darkness. The Bible said Jesus called us out of darkness and into his marvelous light (I Peter 2:9 NIV)

“I was taken right up into that light. I was so happy in my heart to leave that awful place of darkness. The only way I could leave was because I’d prayed before I died. You can’t get out once you’re dead and already there. It’s too late then,” the young man said to the group gathered in the New Zealand home.

What happened to Ian after the light drew him out of the blackest darkness of Hell provides an incredible conclusion to this unbelievable day in the life of Ian McCormack. The young diver’s life changed forever.

Listening to Ian’s testimony on Resurrection Sunday, March 27, I sense the deep love God has for each one of us. The events that immediately followed Ian’s visit to Hell illuminated familiar Scripture verses, making them both real and personal.

C’mon back next week for the exciting conclusion to the seven eye-witness answers to after-life questions. The story is real and so is the blessing the final phase of Ian’s supernatural experience will bring.